At night gunfire flashes in the hills above the town.
Every morning there are strange new decrees.

Our guide regrets coming and drinks continually
to soothe the pain of his neglected teeth.

Through the tinted windows of the tour bus,
the sun is a black disk, a misplaced decimal point.

We pass children with charcoal smudges for eyes,
women who squat at the side of the road like dogs to pee,

but in time we hardly notice the absence of light

or the men in fatigues smashing skulls with rocks,
scooping out the brains, licking their fingers.

Howie Good, a journalism professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz, is the author of three poetry chapbooks, Death of the Frog Prince (2004) and Heartland (2007), both from FootHills Publishing, and Strangers & Angels (2007) from Scintillating Publications. He was recently nominated for the second time for a Pushcart Prize.